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African American History & Culture in Museums 

Strategic Crossroads and New Opportunities July 2004 








INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES 

1800 M Street NW, 9th Floor 
Washington, DC 20036 

202-653-IMLS (4657) 
www.imls.gov 

IMLS TTY (for hearing-impaired individuals) 

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IMLS will provide visually impaired or learning-disabled individuals 
with an audio recording of this publication upon request. 

Printed April 2005 

Produced by Schroeder Cherry, 

IMLS Deputy Director for Museum Services 

Conference Facilitator/Writer: Giving Works, Washington, DC 

Editorial and Publication Assistance: 

Mamie Bittner, Director of Public and Legislative Affairs 

Designed by Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Washington, DC 
www.ogilvypr.com 

Photo Credit (Cover): 

Left: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Philadelphia, 1965. Photo by Jack T. Franklin. 

Photograph courtesy of the African American Museum in Philadelphia. 

Center: Exterior of the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, MO. Photo by Ben Weddle. 

Right: A saxophone belonging to Charlie Parker is a featured item in the 
American Jazz Museums Collection. Photo by Ben Weddle. 

Printed in the United States of America 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 

African American history & culture in museums : strategic crossroads and 
new opportunities, 16 July 2004 / Institute of Museum and Library 
Services. 

20. 21.25cm. 

1. African Americans-Museums. 2. African 
Americans-Museums-Planning. 3. African 

Americans-Museums-Management. I. Title: African American history and 
culture in museums. II. Institute of Museum and Library Services (U.S.) 
E185.53.A1A34 2005 
973'.0496073'0075--dc 


222005009308 

















ABOUT 


IMLS 


AND 

AFRICAN 

AMERICAN 

MUSEUMS 


The Institute of Museum and Library Services is 
dedicated to creating and sustaining a Nation of 
Learners by helping libraries and museums serve 
their communities. African American museums are 
eligible for grants from IMLS and can use them to 
strengthen their public service, care of collections, 
staff development and leadership activities. 

For more information about these and other IMLS 
programs and activities, visit www.imls.gov. 

Museums for America Grants provide support to 
museums for their work in sustaining cultural 
heritage, supporting lifelong learning, and serving 
as centers of community engagement. 

21st Century Museum Professionals Grants support 
a range of professional development activities for 
museum professionals. 

Museum Assessment Program provides 
noncompetitive grants to museums for technical 
assistance in four areas (1) institutional, (2) 
collections management, (3) public dimension, 
and (4) governance. It is administered by the 
American Association of Museums. 


Conservation Project Support provides matching 
grants to help museums identify conservation needs 
and priorities and perform activities to ensure the 
safekeeping of their collections. 

Conservation Assessment Program provides museums 
with an overall general conservation assessment. 

It is administered by Heritage Preservation, Inc. 

National Leadership Grants encourage leadership 
in the education of lifelong learners in the 21st 
century, the innovative use of new technologies, 
model projects that can be replicated throughout 
the field, and an extended impact of federal dollars 
through collaborative projects. Grants are made 
to museums, libraries, and other organizations in 
three categories: Advancing Learning Communities, 
Building Digital Resources, and Research and 
Evaluation. 

Partnership for a Nation of Learners Community 
Collaboration Grants support museum/library/public 
broadcasting collaborations that address community 
educational needs. 











TABLE OF CONTENTS 




Letter from Robert S. Martin 
Background 

Historical Context and Alignment to Mission 
The Roles of Strategic Planning 
Fundraising 



Relationship-focused Giving 
Endowments 

Marketing and Outreach 


Introduction 

Audience Segmentation 


Outreach and Collaboration 



Museum Operations 

Collections and Facilities 
Professional Development 
Deployment and Management of Technology 

Governance 

Strengthening and Accessing Field Resources 


Where Do We Go Next? 


Annex 

Forum Participants 

National Museum of African American History and Culture Act 























LETTER FROM ROBERT S. MARTIN 


Dear Colleague, 

At a White House celebration of Black History Month on February 8, 
2005 President George W. Bush recalled that "in the 1920s, Dr. 
Carter G. Woodson argued that if African Americans were to take their 
rightful place in society, young Americans of all races needed to learn 
about the black contribution to our history and culture. So in 1926, 
he launched the first black history week. Today, a movement that 
began in black churches and schoolrooms is observed all across 
America—including the White House." 

The President remarked that “The Civil Rights pioneers of Dr. 
Woodson's era also had another dream: a national museum to 
celebrate the history and achievements of African Americans.” He 
went on to say that on December 16, 2003, he “was proud to sign 
legislation that will create the National Museum of African American 
History and Culture within the Smithsonian Institution.” 

It is clear that African American museums play a vital role in our 
nation. For decades African American museums in communities 
across the nation have carried forth the legacy of Dr. Woodson. They 
are catalysts for deepening appreciation and understanding of the 
African American experience and they play an essential role in the 
creation of scholarship, the stewardship of collections and the 
development of public programs. As such, these museums are a vital 
component in the ongoing effort of our country to create “a Nation 
of Learners"—an effort that is the central mission of the I MLS. 

For this reason I am very pleased that the legislation that creates the 
new museum also acknowledges the work of existing African American 
museums. The Act calls upon the Institute of Museum and Library 
Services to create a grant program in coordination with the council and 
the director of the new Smithsonian museum. This initiative will help 


1 


March 2005 


to ensure that the American people continue to benefit from the 
vitality, resourcefulness and ingenuity of these non-federal institutions. 

At IMLS, we look forward to continuing to work with African-American 
museums across the nation, helping them develop strong and 
effective programs, building collaboration among museums, and 
aiding them in meeting the needs of their communities. 

In July 2004, IMLS convened a group of leaders in the African 
American museum community, as well as leaders in the museum 
community at large, to explore the evolving role of African American 
museums, their contributions, and their challenges. This report 
provides a synthesis of the discussion. A clear outcome of the 
meeting was that IMLS must continue to work closely with the African 
American museum community to raise awareness about its existing 
grant opportunities and to create new opportunities. 

The National Museum and Library Services Board is also deeply 
engaged in supporting the continuing development of IMLS's service 
to African American museums. They have encouraged the agency to 
respond to this new legislation in a way that is complementary to, but 
not duplicative of, its existing grant programs. This report documents 
one of many conversations IMLS will encourage as it continues to 
serve this important and unique segment of the American museum 
community. 

Sincerely, 


Robert Martin, Director 



BACKGROUND 


The Institute of Museum and Library 
Services (IMLS) is an independent federal 
grant-making agency dedicated to creating 
and sustaining a Nation of Learners by 
helping libraries and museums serve their 
communities. In 2003, Congress enacted 
the National Museum of African American 
History and Culture Act, which establishes 
a Smithsonian Museum for African 
American History and Culture—and which 
authorizes the Institute of Museum and 
Library Services to develop a grant 
program to support African American 
museums nationwide. 

Recognizing the importance of African 
American cultures and museums in 
preserving a vital part of our national 
heritage, IMLS sought to deepen its 
understanding of and ability to serve 
museums addressing African American 
history and culture. On July 16, 2004, IMLS 
convened a day-long forum of 30 invitees to 
address current challenges and resources for 
African American history and culture in 
museums. In his opening remarks, IMLS 
Director Robert Martin framed the session as 
a critical listening opportunity for the agency 
staff as they continued to fine-tune and 
improve programs. 


Invitees included senior-level museum 
professionals representing institutions of 
varying disciplines and sizes from across 
the country, several representatives from 
museum service organizations, and three 
members of the National Museum and 
Library Services Board. The participants 
represented a wide spectrum: from the 
first wave of African American museums 
to yet-to-be-opened innovators, from locally 
focused cultural centers to ones with 
a national scope. The participants (see 
Annex 1) engaged in an animated 
discussion, sharing their years of 
experience and passion for their work. 

What follows is a thematically organized 
synthesis of the workshop’s discussions. 
This summary is intended to stimulate 
further conversation and collaboration 
between IMLS and the vital constituency 
of African American museums. 



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The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati, OH) 


2 





















HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND 
ALIGNMENT TO MISSION 


The field of African American museums 
is in a state of transition. While the 
number of African American museums has 
doubled since 1986-87 and continues 
to grow, the forum surfaced profound 
strategic challenges regarding the future 
of these institutions. 

African American museums pioneered 
the interpretation of the African American 
experience in America. They were, and 
continue to be, instrumental in gathering, 
conserving, and interpreting African 
American collections and cultural 
resources. Over time, the situation has 
evolved. The African American story is 
increasingly being told by non-African 
American museums. It is now not unusual 
for other types of museums to incorporate 
African American history and culture into 
their work and curate special exhibits 
highlighting the African American 
experience and perspective. Consequently, 
African American museums increasingly 
compete with other repositories for 
donations, audience attention, and 
curatorial talent. 

African American museums are thus at 
a point of reassessment. The goal remains 
engaging communities and, in the words 


of one workshop participant, “telling an 
American story through an African 
American voice,” but important aspects 
of the strategic context have changed. 

The “African American community” 
consists of multiple and distinctive 
audience segments, whose needs and 
sense of affiliation with African American 
history and culture vary considerably. 
Geographic dispersion of African 
Americans has also meant that some 
African American museums that were 
built in African American neighborhoods 
find that the composition of their 
neighborhoods has changed, creating new 
challenges in audience development. 

This forum concluded that maintaining 
social relevance implies broadening and 
deepening the audience base, recognizing 
the full range and interests of constituents. 
Changing societal needs and competing 
demands from different audience 
segments imply the need to clarify 
mission with respect to audiences served. 
Each African American museum exists 
within a larger ecosystem of other 
museums and cultural resources, and 
each must find its comparative advantage 
compatible with its specific strengths, 
size, resources, stakeholder needs, and 
technical specialization. 


Amid this change, a key challenge posed 
by workshop participants was to determine, 
in practical terms, how African American 
museums could honor their historic and 
ongoing commitment while continuing 
to evolve within the larger museum 
landscape. Moreover, they explored how 
the African American museum leaders 
themselves could work together to position 
their institutions ahead of change. Critical 
to this effort, participants observed, is the 
development of strategies that are realistic, 
affordable, and sustainable. 






























THE ROLES OF 
STRATEGIC PLANNING 


FUNDRAISING 


Since their inception, many African 
American museums have struggled to 
sustain the combination of staff, training, 
and funds required to operate. Participants 
emphasized that most African American 
museums find it difficult to secure 
adequate funding, and a number of 
prominent museums were recently 
compelled to lay off staff. Participants 
further emphasized that financial sustain¬ 
ability is fun-damentally related to the 
larger context of museum mission, 
audiences, offerings, and outcomes. 

The discussion at the I MLS forum pointed 
to the need to think more comprehensively 
about this set of considerations. 
Participants identified the need for 
strategic planning services at the 
organizational level, similar to the needs 
assessment tools available through the 
IMLS Museum Assessment Program and 
Conservation Assessment Program, and 
developed to address the institutional 
and resource constraints of the typical 
African American museum. 


Achieving and sustaining fundraising 
success was widely cited as one of the 
most pressing challenges facing African 
American museums. Participants 
discussed two key fundraising 
opportunities: relationship-focused 
giving and endowments. 

Relationship-focused Giving 

The environment in which African American 
museums seek funds has changed. 
Historically, African Americans have not 
had the wealth base to rely on individual 
benefactors. Today, that wealth base exists, 
but there is not yet a collective 
consciousness among African Americans 
of “owning" African American cultural 
institutions. Moreover, many African 
American museums are not investing in 
developing and harvesting relationships with 
potential significant donors. Paradoxically, 
it was also observed that some organizations 
were pursuing “celebrity” funding to the 
detriment of building a more reliable base 
of “regular” donors. 

In the past 20 years, individual fundraising 
has become a highly disciplined and 
analytical field. Many African American 
museums, it was suggested, have not yet 
taken advantage of advanced fundraising 
techniques (such as data mining) 
to identify and cultivate sources of new 
and larger donations. Given the small size 
of many of these museums, a number of 


participants thought it may be valuable 
to explore shared ways to improve the 
level of fundraising expertise across 
the community. 

Participants noted some recent fundraising 
successes. The National Underground 
Railroad Museum and Freedom Center in 
Cincinnati, OH, was able to attract large, 
high-profile grants and significant 
individual donations. Other participants 
shared their own experiences with 
developing relationship-based giving, 
beyond the wealthiest “elite,” within their 
communities. They noted that there are 
individuals who are willing and able to 
give, but simply have not been asked. 

A critical mass of prominent and wealthy 
African Americans may already exist who 
can be persuaded not only to give but also 
to leverage their relationships with others, 
including non-African Americans. 

Tapping effectively into African American 
financial resources may require a shift 
in mind set on the part of African 
American museums. Several workshop 
participants underscored the fact that 
African Americans do not constitute one 
homogenous community, but are rather 
a highly diverse group of individuals with 
a broad range of wealth, philanthropic 
practices, degree of affiliation with cultural 
causes, and reasons for supporting 
museum programs and services. 









Children try out a mechanical Bull at The African American Museum's 
(Dallas, TX) Rodeo 101 event, one of the preliminary activities before 
the Texas Black Invitational Rodeo, a major Museum event. 


Participants took note of current trends 
for accountability and donor involvement 
in fundraising. Increasingly, it was 
observed, some donors want to exercise 
influence over organizational endeavors. 

As in any partnership, it is prudent to be 
careful about who one takes money from 
and under what conditions. Several 
workshop participants pointed out that if 
a museum does not have the capacity to 
deliver on donor expectations, it might 
be more prudent to refuse a gift than to 
jeopardize a relationship that may prove 
valuable in the future. 

The discussion on governance underscored 
the fact that proactively pursuing new 
sources of funding can help fulfill the 
institution's purpose and mission. This 
means that the board and staff together 
must make common cause in supporting 
the director’s ability to fundraise 
successfully and encourage board members 
to develop and leverage relationships with 
key donors. Foundations and corporations 
can be good funding partners; however, 
effectively soliciting their support requires 
not only an up-front investment in targeted 
relationships, but also the ability to relate 
museum programs and outcomes to the 
interest areas and requirements of these 
institutional donors. 


In an environment of diminished funding 
availability for arts and culture in general, 
additional challenges abound for African 
American museums. Many institutions— 
not only traditional African American 
museums—develop and present programs 
and exhibitions on African American topics 
and themes; many museums collect 
African American material. This has 
reduced some of the unique advantage 
that African American museums had 
enjoyed in the past. Furthermore, 
foundations are moving toward invitational 
grant making and away from open 
applications, a trend that requires African 
American museums to establish new 
relationships with funders. Key challenges 
are to position African American museums 
as strategically important players in the 
overall museum milieu and to facilitate 
joint planning and dialogues between 
potential funders and African American 
museums. Approaching and utilizing 
regional associations of grantmakers was 
cited as a potentially promising avenue 
of donor outreach. 


5 















MARKETING AND OUTREACH 


Endowments 

Given that endowments represent only a very 
small percent of African American museum’s 
resources, under what circumstances does a 
focus on endowment make sense, and what 
prevents many African American museums 
from pursuing endowments? 

For resource-constrained, smaller 
institutions, the topic of endowments is a 
difficult one. In general, participants were 
attracted to the financial autonomy that 
a large and well-performing endowment 
provides, but noted that it was a feasible 
option only for museums that have reached 
a base level of fiscal stability in their 
operating budgets. One participant noted 
that she would like an endowment but 
wasn’t sure she could afford getting there. 
Workshop participants believed that 
endowment funds required an investment 
of effort for a long-term payoff, and many 
directors believed that it was often 
inadvisable to allocate staff time to 
such activities. It was also noted that 
endowments require embracing a long term 
horizon, while many leaders were more 
focused on immediate needs, and their 
time horizon was largely determined by 
the duration of their own tenure. 


Not everyone agreed that endowments 
were feasible only after the basic operating 
budget was adequately funded. One 
workshop participant considered his 
success with an endowment as much 
a matter of commitment and discipline 
as it was of affordability. From his own 
experience, he felt that endowments 
cannot be developed unless there is a 
commitment to earmark from the top some 
funds as long-term investments, even when 
operating budget pressures exist. Doing so 
requires that museum leadership (board 
and executive) trade off addressing current 
needs against creating resources for a 
sustainable future when they themselves 
are unlikely to be at the helm. 

In addition, successful endowment 
campaigns require extended (and 
extensive) preparation and analysis and 
must be managed as multiyear initiatives. 
Endowments tend to be seeded by certain 
major lead gifts that are then leveraged 
to raise matching and supplementary 
contributions from others. All of this, 
it was noted, requires systems and 
capabilities beyond those readily available 
in many African American museums. 


Participants believed that broadening and 
deepening a museum’s audience base 
depends significantly on how well it 
undertakes its marketing and 
communications activities as well as its 
outreach programs. While programmatic 
quality is inarguably the foundation of 
audience development, professional-grade 
marketing is necessary to attract those 
audiences. Even when resources are 
scarce, conscious (and cost-effective) 
marketing is not a discretionary exercise, 
but rather a critical investment that 
enables an organization to cultivate both 
new and existing audiences. 


While programmatic quality is 
inarguably the foundation of 
audience development, professional- 
grade marketing is necessary to 
attract those audiences. 


6 



















It was also noted that marketing remains 
a major challenge for many African 
American museums, especially in an era 
of changing demographics and generational 
expectations. The forum yielded some 
important insights on ways to achieve 
marketing and programming excellence. 

Audience segmentation is key to 
coordinating museum programs, outreach, 
marketing and communications efforts 
to best serve and increase stakeholders. 
Museums face the concurrent challenges 
of maintaining the coherence and integrity 
of their exhibits and programs while 
making them relevant to diverse audience 
segments. As some participants pointed 
out, elaborate segmentation schemes are 
neither necessary nor feasible for many 
small and midsized museums. However, 
it was acknowledged that all museums 
would benefit from explicitly categorizing 
their main audiences and asking, “What 
about this exhibit would make this group 
want to come to this exhibit, and once they 
are here, what would make it an engaging 
experience for them?" 

Participants at the workshop already had 
a strong sense of the audiences they 
were serving or intended to target. The 
audiences named, however, also illustrated 
the difficulty of developing exhibits whose 


appeal and educational value spanned 
multiple segments and diverse visitation 
patterns, as they included the following: 

1 Children (preschool-12) 

2 Educators (teachers K-12, college 
professors, retired teachers, and 
educational researchers) 

3 Campus communities 
(students, educators, and families) 

4 Families 

5 Adults 

6 Seniors 

Participants identified a number of 
promising principles and practices, 
ranging from “Marketing 101” to more 
nuanced approaches to winning and 
keeping audiences. These ideas can be 
categorized under audience segmentation, 
and outreach and collaboration. 

Audience segmentation 

1 Define and target the audience(s)— 
including those not being served. 

2 Distinguish between local vs. out-of- 
town, single vs. repeat visitors. 

3 Market to "seasonal" audiences 

(e.g., schoolchildren in winter, families 
in summer, seniors with leisure time 
in fall). 

4 Understand donors’ distinctive needs 
and interests, which may differ from 
those of museum visitors. 


Outreach and collaboration 

1 Engage local stakeholders by: 

• Targeting particular audiences to 
create relationships/networks outside 
of the museum (e.g., the military 
community). 

• Offering internships, which have the 
ancillary benefit of “seeding” another 
generation of audiences. 

2 Give audiences reasons to come back by 
holding regular events, increasing the 
length of stay of large exhibits, rotating 
exhibits, and presenting cost-effective 
ancillary programming. Turn casual 
visitors into regulars by: 

• Marketing the museum to special 
event organizers and corporate 
diversity programs. 

• Keeping exhibits open during 
special events. 

• Inviting event-goers 
to become members. 

3 Deepen partnerships with educators 
through programs such as: 

• Summer institutes, in which teachers 
are trained to use the museum’s 
cultural resources in curriculum 
development. 

• The creation of Web-accessible 
content and teaching templates/ 
materials for the classroom. 


















MUSEUM OPERATIONS 


Maintaining institutional quality is 
especially important for African American 
museums. Many believe that continued 
improvement of their technical capacity 
is critical to their stewardship 
responsibilities. The key challenges 
of museum operations are: 

1 Collections and facilities 

2 Professional development 

3 Deployment and management 
of technology 

1 Collections and Facilities 

While there is an increasing demand for 
African American museums to grow and 
care for collections, many institutions 
do not have the requisite storage or 
infrastructure. Their collections are often 
composed of artifacts donated by ordinary 
individuals rather than private collectors or 
curators. Many collections are incomplete, 
and additional works must be acquired to 
adequately tell the story. Few museums, 
however, have sufficient funds to identify 
and purchase or borrow the requisite works. 

While progress has been made in scaling 
traveling exhibits to match the size of 
available exhibit areas, hosting traveling 
exhibits requires staff skills to research, 
interpret, and create educational materials. 
Many museums struggle to develop quality 
exhibits and attract talented professionals. 


2 Professional Development 

The forum agreed that much more needs 
to be done to attract and mentor young 
museum professionals. Two factors appear 
to hinder professional development in 
African American museums: the lack of 
awareness of the field by potential recruits 
and competition for highly qualified 
candidates. Consequently, some candidate 
pools need to be better accessed, while 
others need to be specifically cultivated. 

Many professionals with liberal arts, 
technology, and marketing backgrounds are 
unaware of career opportunities within the 
museum field, although their skills are in 
demand. It therefore makes sense for 
African American museums to advocate 
proactive recruitment of students, to raise 
awareness about careers in African 
American museums. 

Participants agreed that African American 
museums also need to cultivate and recruit 
scarce curatorial talent. 

Participants suggested several ways African 
American museums could increase the 
talent pool of museum professionals: 

1 Include exposure to careers in African 
American museums in elementary and 
secondary school outreach programs: 


• Expose more youth to museums as 
a career path through community 
outreach activities such as 
presentations at school career days. 

• Continue to offer internships and 
summer camps at which students are 
exposed to museum work and the 
passion of museum professionals. 

• Promote the value of pursuing 
community service and nonprofit 
careers, especially in African 
American communities—and 
communicate the idea that work in 
museums is a legitimate form of 
public service. 



The James E. Lewis Museum of Art maintains 
a large permanent collection of traditional 
works of African Art. 


8 











































2 Create in-service internships and 

mentorships for undergraduate students: 
• Create opportunities for museum 
training for talented undergraduates 
inside and outside of “museum 
studies” programs, such as: 

• Scholarships to expose liberal arts 
majors to museums as a venue for 
their expertise outside of academia. 

• Partnership programs with 
universities, especially historically 
black colleges and universities 
(HBCUs), to 

- Publicize high-caliber scholarship 
and internship programs. 

- Support mentoring and 
career counseling. 

- Increase visibility of museum 
studies at HBCUs. 

• Link prestigious and transformative 
national internships to smaller 
and more local African American 
museums; for example, a program 
that brings Smithsonian interns 
back into museums in their own 
communities could be replicated 
or expanded by other African 
American museums. 

• Build alumni networks of training 
programs to facilitate entry into the 
museum field. 


• Work with career counseling 
offices to reach technical- and 
public relations-ski I led graduates 
looking for fulfilling employment 
or first jobs. 

3 Selectively recruit mid-career or retired 
non-museum professionals who are 
looking for a fulfilling change of career 
path and who have expertise that 
museums can utilize, especially 
marketing, financial management, 
and information technology. 

3 Deployment and Management 
of Technology 

It is increasingly apparent that the new 
generation of museum audiences is no 
longer within “four walls,” and that 
technology offers remote visitation and 
new tools to manage museum operations 
more efficiently. The new technologies 
are both an opportunity and a challenge. 
While new technology-enabled business 
processes can greatly improve the 
productivity of museum professionals, 
they also necessitate significant capital 
investments and a shift in the set of skills 
required to work effectively. 

One forum participant noted that while 
grants do exist for expanding museums’ 
use of technology, the grant applications 


themselves require deep technical 
expertise, which many museums do not 
possess. As a result, others noted, many 
smaller African American museums are 
not able to take advantage of the 
technology grant resources. Addressing 
this challenge requires action in both the 
supply and demand dimensions. Grant 
makers may consider ways of simplifying 
their procedures and requirements to take 
into account the resource and skills needs 
of less technologically advanced museums. 
There is also a need to find ways to 
provide African American museums 
with information technology skills. 

The establishment of corporate partnership 
programs and the creation of a cadre 
of technology volunteers were cited as 
potential avenues of capacity building. 
Pooling technology resources, including 
training, was also suggested as a means 
to leverage the growing African American 
museum community. 

















GOVERNANCE 


According to one participant, governance 
is the single most important—yet least 
discussed—crisis facing the African 
American museum community. Good and 
productive relationships between the board 
and executive management are essential 
to the success of a museum. Each has 
distinct responsibilities, and together they 
set policy and a strategic direction for 
the museum. Many African American 
museums are in a transition phase. They 
were created by dynamic and strong 
leaders who are now retiring. Making the 
difficult transition from founding director 
to board-led organization requires renewed 
attention to educating board members 
so that they can effectively advance the 
museum's mission. 

Much discussion focused on the issue of 
diversity of board composition. The issue 
of diversity on museum boards is a 
sensitive one for African American 
museums. Participants noted that some 
institutions have benefited by a board 
that is diverse in ethnicity, experience, 
and skill base. In addition to being attuned 
to the complexities of managing in the 
non-profit sector, board members must 
also understand the nuances of addressing 
African American issues and serving 
these communities. 


A number of options exist to address these 
challenges. First, tools and best practices 
for board development can be better 
leveraged. Such resources exist, but 
they are not in wide use. In addition, 
several African American museums have 
created their own models for board 
functioning, building on appropriate 
aspects of the corporate model, but these 
models have never been codified and 
shared within the field. It was suggested 
that the Association of African American 
Museums (AAAM) is ideally positioned 
to play a leadership role in this area. 


Good and productive relationships 
between the board and the executive 
management are essential to the success 
of a museum. Each has distinct 
responsibilities and together they set policy 
and a strategic direction for the museum. 


10 






























STRENGTHENING AND 
ACCESSING FIELD RESOURCES 


Participants in the forum recognized the 
vital need to create robust resources for 
the field—some focused on African 
American museums and others based on 
partnerships with mainstream museums 
and organizations. A number of practices 
in the areas of partnership and 
collaborative resources were highlighted: 



East facade of the Chicago Historical Society, the original 
1931 entrance, that faces out on Lincoln Park. 


1 Strategic partnerships with 
“mainstream” museums present 
interesting opportunities. Partnerships 
must be based on compatible needs and 
complimentary missions. Concrete 
programs that demonstrate the value 
and mutual benefit of museum 
collaboration are essential. (For 
example, the Anacostia Museum’s 
“When the Spirit Moves” exhibition 
helped cultivate and enhance 
partnership between African American 
and other museums.) 

2 Reciprocal membership arrangements 

between mainstream and African 
American museums can help each 
museum extend its audience reach. 
There is a need to promote and support 
these new forms of collaboration. 
Reciprocity arrangements between 
Bronzeville Children’s Museum and 
Chicago Historical Society have yielded 
positive lessons in this regard. 


3 Today, there is no single hub where 
needs and resources of African 
American museums can be shared. 
These organizations need the ability 
to connect to expertise and best 
practices. The AAAM was suggested 
as a potential credible locus for such 

an information and knowledge exchange. 
(A discussion is under way of building 
such a resource portal.) 

4 Traveling exhibits are an underused 
resource. There is an untapped 
opportunity to develop collection and 
exhibit touring mechanisms that would 
be relevant to a consortium of non¬ 
collecting African American museums. 


11 

































WHERE DO WE GO NEXT? 


A number of key conclusions emerged from 
the forum. The participants clearly see 
their own work and the field as a whole at 
a strategic crossroads. Furthermore, they 
are eager and open to forge new ways of 
advancing the field and continuing their 
historic role in telling the African American 
story with passion, authenticity, and 
objectivity. 

The challenges that these museums face 
are not likely to be solved by grant money 
alone. Time and again, museum leaders 
talked about the necessity of reinventing 
and retooling themselves for the changing 
landscape of the 21st century. There is a 
need to address thoughtfully some of the 
systemic impediments to sustainability. 
African American museums recognize 
the need to formulate and update their 
strategies, long-range capacity, and 
management tools. 

While new funding programs (such as 
those envisioned in the National Museum 
of African American History and Culture 
Act), can advance the field, forum 
participants also recognized an immediate 
opportunity to help African American 
museums take advantage of existing IMLS 
programs. Simple and inexpensive efforts 
at better outreach and improved ease of 
access will likely generate positive returns 
in this regard. 


This forum was the first such session 
with African American museum leaders 
convened by IMLS. There was general 
acknowledgement that it marked the 
beginning—not the end—of a rich and 
resourceful dialogue on how to enrich and 
deepen this partnership. IMLS Director 
Robert Martin concluded the session, 
reaffirming his agency’s desire to continue 
the listening and learning and to bring 
new voices and perspectives into the 
conversation going forward. 


While new funding opportunities can 
advance the field, there is also an 
immediate opportunity for African 
American museums to take advantage 
of existing IMLS programs. 


12 






ANNEX — FORUM PARTICIPANTS 


Joy Ford Austin 

Director 

Humanities Council of Washington, DC 

Ramona Austin 

(Former) Director 
Hampton University Museum 

William Billingsley 

Executive Director 

Association of African American Museums 

Mamie Bittner 

Director, Legislative and Public Affairs 
I MLS 

Lonnie G. Bunch 

President 

Chicago Historical Society 

Schroeder Cherry 

Deputy Director, Museum Services 
IMLS 

Mary Chute 

Deputy Director, Library Services 
IMLS 

Spencer R. Crew 

Executive Director and CEO 
National Underground Railroad 
Freedom Center 

Rebecca Danvers 

Director, Research and Technology 
IMLS 

Terry L. Davis 

President & CEO 
American Association for State 
and Local History 


Nikki DeJesus 

Cultural Resources & Non-Profit 
Planning & Management 
(Former Director, Maryland African 
American Museum) 

Rex Ellis 

Vice President-Historic Area 
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 

Michele Farrell 

Program Officer 

Institute of Museum and Library Services 

Billie D. Gaines 

Director 

National Museum Fellows Program 

Harry Harrison 

President & CEO 

The African American Museum 

in Philadelphia 

Louis Hicks 

Director 

Alexandria Black History Resource Center 

Kim Igoe 

Vice President, Policy and Programs 
American Association of Museums 

Charmaine Jefferson 

Director 

California African American Museum 

Mary Estelle Kennedy 

Associate Deputy Director, 

Museum Services 
IMLS 


Eric Key 

Executive Director 

The Kansas African American Museum 


13 


Dan Lukash 

Program Officer 
IMLS 

Robert Martin 

Director 

Institute of Museum and Library Services 

Peggy Montes 

President 

Bronzeville Children's Museum 

Juanita Moore 

Executive Director 
American Jazz Museum 

Steven Newsome 

Director 

Emeritus Anacostia Museum 

Elaina Norlin 

Program Officer 

IMLS 

Wendi Perry 

Museum Director 
Banneker-Douglass Museum 

Lawrence J. Pijeaux, Jr. 

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute 

Judith Ann (Judy) Rapanos 

Member, National Museum and Library 
Services Board 

Edwin J.Rigaud 

President 

National Underground Railroad 
Freedom Center 

Member, National Museum and Library 
Services Board 


Harry Robinson, Jr. 

President/CEO 

Dallas African American Museum 
Member, National Museum and Library 
Services Board 

Jeff N. Rudolph 

President and CEO 
California Science Center 
Board Chair, American Association 
of Museum 

Marsha Semmel 

Director for Strategic Partnerships 
IMLS 

Lowery Sims 

Executive Director 

The Studio Museum in Harlem 

Gabriel Tenabe 

Director 

The Office of Museums-Morgan 
State University 

Nancy Weiss 

General Counsel 
IMLS 

Ophelia Wellington 

Executive Director 
Freetown Village 

Christopher Wilson 

Director, Program in 

African American Culture 
National Museum of American History 
Smithsonian Institution 

Antoinette D. Wright 

President and CEO 
DuSable Museum 

of African American History 



ANNEX — NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE ACT 


SEC. 7. EDUCATIONAL AND LIAISON 
PROGRAMS. 

(a) IN GENERAL— 

(1) PROGRAMS AUTHORIZED—The 
Director of the Museum may carry out 
educational and liaison programs in 
support of the goals of the Museum. 

(2) SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES 
DESCRIBED—In carrying out this 
section, the Director shall— 

(A) carry out educational programs 
relating to African American life, art, 
history, and culture, including— 

(i) programs using digital, 
electronic, and interactive 
technologies; and 

(ii) programs carried out in 
collaboration with elementary 
schools, secondary schools, and 
postsecondary schools; and 

(B) consult with the Director of the 
Institute of Museum and Library 
Services concerning the grant and 
scholarship programs carried out 
under subsection (b). 


(b) GRANT AND SCHOLARSHIP 
PROGRAMS— 

(1) IN GENERAL—In consultation with 
the Council and the Director of the 
Museum, the Director of the Institute of 
Museum and Library Services shall 
establish— 

(A) a grant program with the purpose 
of improving operations, care of 
collections, and development of 
professional management at African 
American museums; 

(B) a grant program with the purpose 
of providing internship and fellowship 
opportunities at African American 
museums; 

(C) a scholarship program with the 
purpose of assisting individuals 
who are pursuing careers or carrying 
out studies in the arts, humanities, 
and sciences in the study of 
African American life, art, history, 
and culture; 

(D) in cooperation with other 
museums, historical societies, and 
educational institutions, a grant 
program with the purpose of 
promoting the understanding of 
modern-day practices of slavery 
throughout the world; and 


(E) a grant program under which an 
African-American museum (including 
a nonprofit education organization 
the primary mission of which is to 
promote the study of African- 
American diaspora) may use the 
funds provided under the grant 
to increase an endowment fund 
established by the museum (or 
organization) as of May 1, 2003, 
for the purposes of— 

(i) enhancing educational 
programming; and 

(ii) maintaining and operating 
traveling educational exhibits. 

(2) AUTHORIZATION OF 
APPROPRIATIONS—There are 
authorized to be appropriated to the 
Director of the Institute of Museum 
and Library Services to carry out this 
subsection— 

(A) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 
2004; and 

(B) such sums as are necessary 
for each fiscal year thereafter. 


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